My husband and I, like many other couples in Prince George, work Monday to Friday during the week. This means that we do most of our shopping on the weekends. As I've mentioned in previous articles, we are currently in the midst of the basement renovation that will never end which means that we are looking for DIY supplies and ordering and buying vast amounts of home renovation materials, all on the weekend. One of the biggest frustrations that I have ever encountered in Prince George is not being able to buy anything for our renovation on Sundays unless I go to a big box store.
I want to support the local stores. It is exceptionally hard to support our locally-owned businesses if they aren't open for business. Last Sunday, my husband and I were shopping for flooring and we drove by at least four flooring stores that were all closed. We had money in our pocket to purchase flooring we were forced to go to one of the big DIY stores in town rather than support smaller, locally owned businesses. And this store was packed with other couples shopping for their own home renovation projects.
One of my very first jobs was as a customer service representative at Monkey Forest. I was 16 years old, working downtown on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays. Saturdays were typically busy and Sundays were always a surprise. Some Sundays we would only sell around $30 worth of merchandise (not enough to cover my wages) but some of those lazy Sundays, we would have giant sales, unexpected purchases and a lot of people coming through the doors being surprised and grateful that we were open. We were the only store that was open on Sundays on George St. and, if I remember correctly, it was us and Northern Hardware that was open in all of downtown.
My old boss at Monkey Forest said that being open on Sundays was a service to the community and that having some sales, even if they were small in value, was better than having no sales and having a disappointed customer. And I agree. A city this size shouldn't shut down completely on the weekends. Visitors to our city on the weekends are met with closed doors and empty streets and if they want to shop, we're asking them to go to the West end instead of downtown. One of the reasons that the box stores on the West side of town do so well is because they are open for business when people want to shop. Thank you to the business owners in town who are open during the weekends, the lazy Sunday shoppers appreciate it.
